I keep breaking up with my marketing platform
And my continual search for a blogging/newsletter soulmate
I met my husband on our second day of college. Despite writing love stories for a living, I still don’t have the words to explain how we’ve been able to maintain our relationship for what will be twenty years 😱 this October. That doesn’t mean we never argue or haven’t lived through difficult moments—but choosing to build a life with him has never been an issue.
Committing to a marketing platform is a different story.
In my defense, the content creation tools have drastically changed since I launched my first blog in the early 2000s—a mess of Papyrus font and scrolling marquees, where I thought it was cool to tYpE lYkE tHiS. (Just doing it now is giving me a headache.)
Then it was LiveJournal, Xanga, and deviantART for my creative writing. (I am proud to say I was never on MySpace.) I started a food blog using Blogspot (or was it Blogger?), and abandoned it for microblogging (You know you’re old when you use that term instead of calling it Facebook or Twitter.) Eventually I went back to a personal website, which has featured an emergency management blog, the different iterations of my freelance writing career, and now my authorship journey. Before Substack came along, I was writing a newsletter to a list of small but mighty subscribers. When I finally took the courage to make the switch, I thought to myself that finally; I have found the perfect platform.
And now I’m packing up to move somewhere else.
Breakups are hard, because you never want to leave what is comfortable, even when it is obvious your paths are diverging. But after 43 personal essays and interviews that have prompted me to explore the deepest, darkest parts of myself, I’m interested in getting in touch with my irreverent, light-hearted side. I swear, I’m not usually so down-in-the-dumps introspective with most of my friends IRL. When did I get so serious? Why can’t I just weight lift or go running without making it mean something?
So yes, I’m still going to be writing about creativity and parenthood and defining success on my terms. But I’m probably going to be a lot more self-deprecating and get even more personal (sorry to my husband, family, and friends in advance). And above all else, my goal is to write things that encourage you to show up as your best self in whatever you’re pursuing—whether that’s writing a book, founding a startup, starting a hobby, or simply trying to make it through the overwhelm of the day.
So if that sounds like something you need in your inbox, I’d love for you to visit my newly-remodeled (Internet) home at sophiale.com, grab a seat, and do your best to ignore the household clutter because I serve amazing snacks. (Ask my daughter’s friends if you don’t believe me.)
In other words, if you’ve stumbled here with the intention of subscribing, don’t do it via Substack—click on the link below and subscribe at the top of the page.
See you soon,
Sophia :)